Across the river in Cambridge, concerns about soaring housing prices were mirrored by 80 neighbor-to-neighbor comments after one member of NextDoor, a neighbor-only site, expressed concerns about “how many members of the “public [hearing on affordable housing]” were developers, and how few were residents and advocates.”

Despite shared concern about rising costs, the gap between the two threads revealed a hidden problem: how little is known about the role foreign buyers are playing in the current speculative cycle and their short and long-term impact on affordability. What we do know is that:

Millennium Tower opened their sales center in China before the Boston,

“…going back to 2013, recall that the People’s Bank of China allowed Chinese companies to lend money in renminbi to their offshore branches without any limit and without any requirement for them to first notify regulators.

That essentially meant that companies could transfer money out of China without having to worry about capital controls. Home prices started increasing strongly around the world since around that year.”

How can we raise awareness about #SpeculatorsWithoutBorders? Here are two idea starters:

IDEA STARTER 2: Use humor to raise awareness about #SpeculatorsWithoutBorders

We’ve shared this idea with a number of insiders, and invite feedback on using LAUGHTivism to expose #SpeculatorsWithoutBorders. Should we play with the idea sometime over beer at one of our #REonTap sessions?

Bidding wars are blind, so unless someone spills the beans, first-time homebuyers may not know that they’ve been outbid by a foreign buyer. However, if the same buyer or investor pool turns that purchase into an AirBnb unit, it may be easier to spot and:

Finally, if you’d simply like to sound off about the problem, record a one minute sound bite using this link via lap/desktop or your smartphone. We’ll share it with Senator Elizabeth Warren’s staff, as Congress is investigating whether “short-term rentals may be exacerbating housing shortages and driving up the cost of housing in our communities.”